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Wanderers’ club cup ends in frustration

Dec 18, 2014
Wanderers' goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis stops a ball during match against ES Setif.

Wanderers' goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis stops a ball during match against ES Setif.

Western Sydney’s frustrating Club World Cup campaign has ended with a loss on penalties to Algerian side ES Setif in the playoff for fifth place.

Imports Romeo Castelan and Vitor Saba scored brilliant goals in either half as a virtual second-string Wanderers side was locked at 2-2 with the African champions after 90 minutes in Marrakesh on Wednesday.

With no extra-time played in the fifth-place playoff, back-up goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis made three saves in a marathon penalty shootout but was also one of four Wanderers players to miss spot kicks.

The defeat ended a tumultuous campaign which featured threats of a player strike over prize money and a controversial 3-1 extra-time loss to Mexican side Cruz Azul in the quarter-finals.

The Wanderers will still take home $A1.2 million in prizemoney for finishing sixth and coach Tony Popovic said there were plenty of positives to take back to the A-League, where the Asian champions sit last after ten rounds.

“We played two matches and in ninety minutes in both games we haven’t lost,” Popovic said.

“We came here on the back of no wins in the league and we had a few issues off the field but I maintain the way the players trained and performed in that first game, it’s a very united group.

“They’re disappointed in the change room they haven’t won a game where I felt they should have won both.”

“In terms of the performance there are a lot of positives. Tonight we gave players an opportunity and we still performed admirably.”

Western Sydney were without suspended centre backs Matthew Spiranovic and Nikolai Topor-Stanley, who failed to have his ban overturned despite being mistakenly sent off in Saturday’s controversial loss to Cruz Azul on a waterlogged pitch in Rabat.

The coach made eight changes to his side with squad players including Kearyn Baccus, Jaushua Sotirio and Bouzanis handed rare starts.

The Wanderers started brightly and took a fifth-minute lead courtesy of Castelan’s brilliance.

Stand-in skipper Labinot Haliti charged forward from a counter attack and neatly offloaded the ball before the Dutchman buried a driven first-time shot from 25 metres out.

The A-League side should have doubled their advantage in the 18th minute, with Haliti and Daniel Mullen denied by the woodwork in the space of a few seconds.

ES Setif looked far more dangerous after halftime and Western Sydney surrendered their lead via a Mullen own goal.

The African champions continued to threaten, with Bouzanis forced into a brilliant save to deny Sid Ali Amri.

But the Algerian side took the lead in the 57th minute when Abdelmalek Ziaya cleverly controlled a cross with one foot and scored with the other.

ES Setif were still in control when Brazilian substitute Saba brilliantly curled in a free kick from outside the box in the 88th minute to revive the Wanderers’ hopes.

Exciting 17-year-old Alusine Fofanah successfully converted a penalty but Mullen, Haliti, Bouzanis and Seyi Adeleke all missed as ES Setif won the shootout 5-4 to claim the $A1.8 million prize for fifth.

The Wanderers next match is an away A-League assignment against Wellington on Sunday week.

“It’s a long trip home but hopefully with those 11 days it might give us seven or eight good days of training to prepare for the tough challenge ahead,” Popovic said.

– AAP

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